Revival's Second Day: From Hearing to Doing Text: Nehemiah 8:13-18
Introduction: The Difference a Day Makes
True revival is not a momentary emotional experience. It is not a weekend conference that leaves you with a spiritual hangover on Monday morning. Genuine revival, the kind that reshapes a people and a culture, has legs. It gets up and walks. It has a second day. What we see in our text today is the crucial difference between a fleeting religious feeling and a deep, lasting reformation. The first day, described in the first part of Nehemiah 8, was glorious. The people stood for hours, they heard the Word of God read, they wept, and they were told to rejoice because the joy of the Lord was their strength. That was the day of hearing.
But the second day is the day of doing. The second day is when the leadership, having been stirred by the public reading, comes back for more. They don't say, "Well, that was a wonderful service. See you next year." No, they gather around Ezra the scribe to "gain insight into the words of the law." They wanted to understand it, not just experience it. And this is the pivot point. Many so called revivals die overnight because they are built on the shifting sands of emotional fervor. But a true work of God is built on the bedrock of His Word, understood and obeyed. The difference between a bonfire and a forest fire is that one burns out where it started, while the other spreads. The events of this second day show us how the spark of revival becomes a spreading flame of reformation.
What happens when a people, freshly awakened by the Word, immediately seek to apply it? What is the fruit of this kind of attentive hearing? Our text gives us the answer: forgotten truths are rediscovered, clear commands are obeyed with haste, and a deep, corporate joy erupts that hasn't been seen in a thousand years. This is not just a historical account of the Jews rebuilding their worship; it is a blueprint for us. We are always in need of reformation, always in need of rediscovering what the Word actually says and then doing it. This passage teaches us that the path to "exceedingly great gladness" is paved with the stones of careful study and radical obedience.
The Text
Then on the second day the heads of fathers’ households of all the people, the priests and the Levites were gathered to Ezra the scribe that they might gain insight into the words of the law. They found written in the law how Yahweh had commanded by the hand of Moses that the sons of Israel should live in booths during the feast of the seventh month, and that they should make the report heard and make a proclamation of it pass throughout all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the hills, and bring olive branches and wild olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of other leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.” So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the Water Gate and in the square at the Gate of Ephraim. The entire assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in the booths. The sons of Israel had indeed not done so from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day. And there was exceedingly great gladness. And he read from the book of the law of God daily, from the first day to the last day. And they celebrated the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the legal judgment.
(Nehemiah 8:13-18 LSB)
Hungry for More (v. 13)
We begin with the immediate aftermath of the great assembly.
"Then on the second day the heads of fathers’ households of all the people, the priests and the Levites were gathered to Ezra the scribe that they might gain insight into the words of the law." (Nehemiah 8:13)
The first sign of a genuine work of God is an appetite for the Word of God. The leaders of the people, the heads of the families, the priests, and the Levites, were not satisfied with the public reading. Their appetite was whetted, not sated. They came back the very next day for a deeper dive. They wanted to "gain insight." This Hebrew word means to look at something with intelligence, to consider it, to understand its implications. This is the opposite of our modern, shallow approach to faith where the sermon is a 20 minute pep talk to get you through the week. These men understood that the Word of God was the blueprint for their entire society, and they needed to study the plans carefully.
Notice who came. It was the leadership. Reformation always starts at the top. When the heads of households and the spiritual leaders are hungry for the truth, it will inevitably flow down to everyone else. A fish rots from the head down, but it is also revived from the head down. These men were not delegating their spiritual responsibility. They gathered around Ezra, the expert, to be taught. They humbled themselves. This is the posture of revival: leaders who are eager to learn and submit to the authority of Scripture.
A Forgotten Commandment (v. 14-15)
As they studied, they made a startling discovery.
"They found written in the law how Yahweh had commanded by the hand of Moses that the sons of Israel should live in booths during the feast of the seventh month, and that they should make the report heard and make a proclamation of it pass throughout all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, 'Go out to the hills, and bring olive branches and wild olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of other leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.'" (Nehemiah 8:14-15 LSB)
They found something. This is what happens when you blow the dust off your Bible. You find things. You find things that have been there all along, commandments that have been neglected, promises that have been forgotten. Specifically, they rediscovered the commandment for the Feast of Booths, or Tabernacles. This was one of the three great pilgrimage feasts commanded in Leviticus 23. It was a week-long festival to remember God's provision for Israel in the wilderness, when they lived in temporary shelters. It was also a harvest festival, a time of great joy and thanksgiving.
But they had not just forgotten the feast; they had forgotten the specific instructions for it. They were to go out to the hills and gather branches to build these temporary shelters. This was not a mere suggestion. It was "as it is written." Their immediate response was not to form a committee to discuss the feasibility of such a project. It was not to debate whether this was culturally relevant. They read the Word, and their only question was how to obey it. The command was to proclaim it, to make it known everywhere, and to get to work. This is the engine of reformation: the Word is read, the Word is understood, and the Word is obeyed. Immediately.
Radical, Public Obedience (v. 16-17a)
The response of the people was swift, widespread, and joyful.
"So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the Water Gate and in the square at the Gate of Ephraim. The entire assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in the booths." (Nehemiah 8:16-17a LSB)
This is a beautiful picture of a community united in obedience. "So the people went out." There was no hesitation. The proclamation was made, and the people responded. They built these booths everywhere. On their flat roofs, in their courtyards, in the temple courts, and in the public squares. Jerusalem must have been transformed overnight into a city of leafy shelters. This was a massive, corporate act of obedience. It was visible, public, and all-encompassing.
This is what happens when God's people take His Word seriously. It changes the landscape. It affects public life. Christianity is not a private hobby. It is a public truth that shapes everything. Their obedience was not grudging; it was an overflow of what they had heard the day before. They were not just obeying a rule; they were re-enacting their history, identifying with their forefathers, and tangibly remembering the faithfulness of God. This kind of physical, enacted theology is powerful. It gets the truth out of your head and into your hands and feet.
Unprecedented Joy and Faithful Preaching (v. 17b-18)
The result of this radical obedience was a joy unlike any they had known for centuries.
"The sons of Israel had indeed not done so from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day. And there was exceedingly great gladness. And he read from the book of the law of God daily, from the first day to the last day. And they celebrated the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the legal judgment." (Nehemiah 8:17b-18 LSB)
This is a stunning statement. They had not celebrated the Feast of Booths in this manner, with this kind of thorough obedience, since the days of Joshua. That's nearly a thousand years. Think of the great kings and reformers they had seen, David, Solomon, Hezekiah, Josiah. And yet, in all that time, this particular command had been neglected. This should be a sobering thought for us. What have we neglected? What clear commands have we explained away or allowed to gather dust? The path to revival is often the path of rediscovering and restoring what has been lost through disobedience and neglect.
And what was the fruit of this restored obedience? "Exceedingly great gladness." True biblical joy is not a feeling we try to manufacture. It is a byproduct. It is the fruit that grows on the tree of obedience. When we align our lives with God's revealed will, joy erupts. Our secular world chases happiness as an end in itself and never finds it. The Christian chases obedience and finds joy ambushing him along the way. This was not just gladness; it was "exceedingly great" gladness. It was a joy that came from being rightly related to God and His Word.
Finally, notice the foundation that sustained this week-long celebration. "And he read from the book of the law of God daily, from the first day to the last day." The Word of God was not the prelude to the festival; it was the centerpiece. Every single day, they were saturated in Scripture. The preaching of the Word initiated the revival, and the continued preaching of the Word sustained it. Joy and obedience are not self-perpetuating. They must be constantly fueled by the truth of God's Word. The feast concluded on the eighth day with a "solemn assembly," a holy convocation, all done "according to the legal judgment," or according to the rule. The entire event, from start to finish, was governed by Scripture.
The Gospel of Booths
This whole episode is dripping with gospel truth. The Feast of Booths was a look backward to the wilderness, but it was also a look forward to the coming of Christ.
The Apostle John tells us that "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). The word for "dwelt" is literally "tabernacled" or "pitched His tent" among us. Jesus Christ, the eternal Word, came and lived in a temporary shelter, the booth of a human body, in order to save His people from their exile in sin. He is the ultimate fulfillment of this feast.
Furthermore, the feast was a reminder that we are pilgrims in this world. We are living in temporary shelters, looking for a city whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10). Our true home is not here. This world is our wilderness. But just as God provided for Israel in the desert, He provides for us now through His Son. And the "exceedingly great gladness" they experienced is just a foretaste of the joy we will have at the great, final harvest festival, when we are gathered into the presence of our Lord forever.
The pattern for us is the same as it was for them. If we want this kind of deep, lasting joy, we must follow their example. It begins with a hunger for the Word. It leads to careful study. That study will uncover things we have been neglecting. And that discovery must lead to immediate, radical, corporate obedience. When we do what God says, simply because He says it, we will find a gladness that the world cannot give and cannot take away. Let us therefore open the Book, find what is written, and go and do it.